The Untamed

Synopsis

Hypnotic, perturbing, and utterly enthralling, The Untamed combines a suspenseful family drama with truly bizarre elements of science fiction and horror. Desperate to flee but consumed by fear, Alejandra, a young mother and working housewife, is trapped in a violent and unsatisfying relationship with her husband, Angel. She leans on her brother Fabián for support, but he has secrets of his own. All of their lives are turned upside down by the arrival of the mysterious Veronica. She convinces them that in the nearby woods, inside an isolated cabin, dwells something not of this world that could be the answer to all of their problems... something whose force they cannot resist and with whom they must make peace or suffer its wrath.

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Genres

What inspired this film was a news article about a man who drowned, and the headline read "faggot drowned". Amat Escalante was so appalled by the lack of humanity that he decided to make a film exploring themes of sex, homosexuality, violence and gender roles. And it the middle of it all, simply lacking any humanity at all: an alien which both gives humans pleasure and destroys them. When facing the cruelty and violence in Mexico, creating a supernatural being might seem less far fetched than reality.

There is a scene in this film where one of our main characters, Veronica, meets a stranger in a diner. Curiously, she asks him about his practice of going out into the wilderness to hunt wild boar. Little does he know that in a way she is also a hunter, except inversely she goes to the city to lure people into the wilderness. Specifically, she takes them to a clearing in the forest wherein lies a cabin inhabited by a tentacled alien fuck monster.

That might give you the sense that it is some kind of Mexican version of Under The Skin meets Shivers. And you would be partially correct. But director, Amante Escalante…

Folded into realm of desire, pleasure and destruction. The Untamed unfolds its structure around three characters as their lives start to slowly decay into the desires of the flesh that is its own beast.

Surreal and hypnotic are binded together to tell the story that brings in the violence presented along with the sexual pleasure that dominates in the forms of these two. Man and the alien are not really apart from their characteristics of sex and violence.

Alejandra and Ángel are a married couple with two children, their lives of desires and sex are hidden from each other. Ángel who plays the typical straight guy discriminating against Alejandra's brother who is gay while at the same time is having…

This is a hell of a ride. Don't listen to any of the trailer's youtube comments that only mention banal (but eye catching) elements of the film. The Untamed is a story about flawed humans depriving themselves of their relatively simple but frowned upon desires, and the consequences that this brings to theirselves, that happens to have a wonderful CGI tentacle creature as a framing device, and it's awesome.

On the one hand, you have a devastating story of a family with just mere strings holding them together, and the other hand I can't even begin to explain. Whether this is considered horror or sci-fi, I would much rather consider it Lovecraftian. The first few minutes give a small hint at a particular something, but even if that hint doesn't take you anywhere until the later half of the film, it is enough to keep you drawn in, if not to find out. And boy oh boy, I haven't admired a film that so tonally juggles these different themes so well in so long. I was very impressed, not for just the performances, but the way this story goes to such incredibly horrifying places, and pulls it off.